Wednesday, February 11, 2009
AIR SUPPLY IN CONCERT 2 February 2009
Celebrating thirty freakin’ years of Ballads R Us, Graham Russell and Rusell Hitchcock took over the neighborhood performing arts theater in Wilkes-Barre, PA, USA and they did themselves proud. When you think it all began, according to Russell (note the differing spellings to follow who says what!), it all started out with the two men and an acoustic guitar in coffee houses and pizza parlors, eventually exploded into world-wide fame in soft rock and now every moment on stage is icing on the cake.
And what sweet cake it was. Now friends, you know my music tastes vary considerably, and I will be the first one to tell you it’s hard to stomp along with any Air Supply opus, nevertheless the guys, backed by a technically and emotively perfect band (drums, lead guitar, bass guitar and keys, plus Russell’s guitar) may I suggest ROCKED? I mean you cannot deny the long string of hits, and millions of albums, CDs and downloads people plunked down real coin for, and still enjoy!
We were treated to two sets of one hour each, followed by a double-shot encore. About halfway through the show the duo walked calmly through the first floor of the theater and posed for pictures with fans WHILE PLAYING AND SINGING a song. I’ve never seen a more hospitable band. But wait, there was more…
After the show, the entire band stayed late into the evening to meet and greet fans, several hundred of which were willing to wait in a very orderly line. I got a chance to complement the drummer on his expertise. I wish I caught his name. To summarize, the man has to keep an edgy beat in an orgy of light rock ballads, and sound upbeat and keep everyone enthusiastic. He did just that for the entire show. As did the entire troop. And the vocals, virtually all by the original duo with rare augmentation by the backup of the band, were nearly flawless. They sounded incredibly good.
I’ll admit I came into this show with little expectation. I left with a similar feeling I have had seeing among the best…I just wish they had a wee bit of rock and roll in the catalogue. Hey, maybe get AC/DC to write you a few tunes for your next CD????
All joking aside, Graham Russell did do a new song to be out on their next new studio album, called The River and Me. It’s gorgeous; look out for it.
BOTTOM LINE: 4/5 stars (if they had covered Whole Lotta Love, I’d give them a perfect 5 stars!!!).
Zeph, out
